Hokitika's legendary Wildfoods Festival can't go ahead this year, but there are other ways foodies can track down exciting fare. While we're not talking mountain oysters and daring delicacies, Aotearoa is full of wild, organic, free-range and locally-crafted finds to satisfy your inner hunter-gatherer, writes Sara Bunny
Foraged treasures
Ifyou're enthused about gathering wild bounty but don't know where to start, join a foraging tour. In Auckland, the New Zealand School of Food and Wine offers an Urban Forage for culinary explorers. Guided by native plant expert Riki Bennett, the interactive walk teaches novices how to identify the best edible greens, looks at traditional Māori food gathering traditions, and includes tips on the ways to cook foraged kai.
For Wellington foodies, Finders Eaters offers regular walks around the city's suburbs, gardens and native bush with arborist and foraging fanatic, Mike King.
Finders Eaters: Foraging fanatic Michael King leads food tours around Wellington and the Kapiti Coast. Photo / Joanna Piatek
And in Christchurch, Wild Capture Foraging runs popular tours for newbie gatherers, guided by pro forager Peter Langlands.
KoruKai Herb Farm in Banks Peninsula offers foraging and medicinal plant tours, while further south in Wānaka, Forage and Feast runs a range of adventures for curious foodies.
Bountiful feasts
If hunting and foraging for your dinner isn't your style, let the experts do it for you. At Cazador on Central Auckland's Dominion Rd, diners can enjoy wild, organic, free-range delights, including everything from boar salami to grilled goat sweetbreads.
Chef Monique Fiso, foraging for Hiakai restaurant, Wellington. Photo / Supplied
In Wellington, award-winning fine dining restaurant Hiakai specialises in Māori ingredients, with locally-foraged plants like red matipo and mamaku native tree fern among the menu's stars. Vegetarians are spoilt for choice at Hillside Kitchen, where the entirely meat-free menu is created with produce that's foraged nearby or grown in the restaurant garden.
Down South, Gatherings in Christchurch is all about celebrating the region's artisan makers and sustainable producers, with as many ingredients as possible grown, crafted or caught locally. They also boast a stellar drinks list of natural and organic wines.
While NZ's great outdoors serves up plenty to nibble on, wild mushrooms can be dangerous and should be left well alone (unless you're a pro who knows how to identify them).
Luckily for the rest of us, there are several top Kiwi producers growing all sorts of exotic 'shrooms to satisfy every culinary whim.
Edible pink oyster mushrooms are on the menu at Ohau Gourmet Mushrooms. Photo / Getty Images
Check out Ohau Gourmet Mushrooms, Wairarapa's Urban Fresh Farms and Raglan's Mushrooms by the Sea for fresh pink and grey oyster mushrooms, as well as the chef's favourite, shiitake. They also have spawn and culture kits if you fancy growing your own, or dried and powdered options if you want all the flavour without having to go full fungi on it.
If truffles are to your taste, Canterbury is the place to go to find these gnarly little nuggets of umami goodness. Fungi fans can hunt their own at the annual Canterbury Truffle Festival, usually held in July, or check out Kings Truffles and Limestone Hills to buy them online when in season.
Moana's finest
It's no secret that New Zealand has some of the best seafood in the world, and you can't get any fresher than the day's catch from Tora Collective. Gathered off the rugged and remote coast of Tora, Southern Wairarapa, all kaimoana is sustainably caught to order to reduce waste. Specialities include crayfish, pāua and kina, and seafood fans can pre-order online.
Tora Collective specialise in catching wild paua and crayfish from Tora Bay. Photo / Supplied
Despite many of the country's top seafood festivals being cancelled again this year due to Covid, kaimoana lovers can still visit a range of favourite haunts. Kaikōura's beloved Nins Bin is a reliable spot for some of the country's best crays, Golden Bay's popular Mussel Inn is the place to go for a steamed mussel or chowder feast, and the Coromandel Oyster Company's seafood deli is the ideal stop for shellfish treats.
Culinary crawlies
While you can't just pop to the local supermarket for a pack of huhu grubs, there are a few ways to get your hands on edible insects. Auckland-based company Eat Crawlers was the first in the country to manufacture edible bugs, and these days they have everything from barbecue grasshoppers to teriyaki mealworms on offer through the online shop. If that's all a bit much, they also stock cricket flour wraps and pasta, while Kiwi company Primal Foods produces cricket corn chips and chocolate-flavoured cricket protein powder.
A leftover huhu grub at the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival. Photo / Kai Schwoerer, Getty Images
Down in Dunedin, locusts are the creepy cuisine of choice. Otago Locusts (find them on Facebook) supply stock to a range of New Zealand restaurants, and enthusiasts have even dubbed the crunchy critters "skyprawns".
Clever brews
New Zealand isn't exactly known for tequila, but one local distillery is bucking the trend. In Motupipi, Golden Bay, rows of blue agave tequilana plants grow happily under the Tasman sun, ready to be transformed into TeKiwi Blue Agave Spirit.
TeKiwi: New Zealand's own Blue Agave Spirit. Photo / Supplied
The smooth-tasting drop is made using the same traditional methods as the iconic Mexican version, it just can't be called tequila due to strict copyright laws. TeKiwi makers, Kiwi Distillery, say their creation has all the classic flavour of the Mexican drink, with some unique characteristics of its own thanks to the spring water from the Golden Bay aquifers.
Beloved Wellington beer makers Garage Project are known for their experimental style, and the "wild workshop" is where much of the magic happens. Filled with fizzing tanks and stacked barrels, the workshop is where these beer barons get creative with funky ferments and kooky beer-wine hybrids, all far removed from your regular bottled brew. The wild workshop cellar door in Te Aro, Wellington is open to visitors, while Auckland-based beer fans can swing by the Kingsland cellar door to sample a range of Garage Project's traditional and experimental drops.
